Author: Victoria Macdonald

In a previous post I dissected the upcoming Journal of Consumer Research report that purportedly found customers who receive poor treatment from sales associates in a luxury retail environment are more likely to make a purchase.  Many blogs turned this particular factoid into a headline. But if you dove deeper into the study, you saw that this off-putting approach had no staying power. It only worked on aspirational customers and not for customers who were already familiar with the brand. Even worse, the majority of aspirational customers who, in a vain attempt to be considered “part of the club,”  succumbed to the snooty behavior of their luxury sales person, wound up returning their purchases within two weeks.

Continue reading “7 out of 10 Affluent Customers Disappointed by In-Store Service” →

By now you’ve probably listened to Ryan Block’s excruciating attempt to cancel his Comcast service with a customer service representative “gone wild.” (If not, you can listen here). The recording starts already 10 minutes into the call. In this case the representative, known as a “retention specialist,” tries to force Mr. Block into explaining why he’s canceling his service, even as Mr. Block repeatedly declines to do so. The recording has gone viral and Comcast has admitted it’s “embarrassed by the call.” In a recent apology issued by Comcast, Tom Karinshak, SVP, Customer Experience, said the way in which the representative communicated was “not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives.”

Continue reading “Can Customer Service Go Too Far?” →

It happened again! I walked into one of those posh, ultra-luxurious shops on Fifth Avenue and the smartly dressed, beautifully coiffed sales associate asked “May I help you?” I’m sure she’d been trained on the company value proposition and was knowledgeable on all the new product lines, but what she didn’t know is this is one of the worst ways to greet a customer! Too often this question is met with a polite “No thank you. I’m just looking.”  That’s because “May I help you?” is a closed-ended question—it can be answered with “yes” or “no.” The next time you go shopping, listen to the number of closed-ended questions you’re asked: “Do you like this one?,” “Do you have a budget?,” “Is this the right color?,” “Will that be all for today?”

Continue reading “Good salespeople have great answers, but great salespeople have great questions” →

Last year my husband and I attended a re-commitment ceremony for friends of ours. Since we’d never had a formal ceremony of our own, we started talking about hosting a similar event. Like most brides, my first thoughts were about what dress I would wear—I favored a simple, off-white, mermaid silhouette. So last week we visited our local bridal store. As soon as we entered, I fell for a luxuriously beaded, ivory ball gown with a fully-flared skirt and court-length train (nothing like the dress I’d imagined). Seeing that dress caused every little-girl princess fantasy I’d suppressed over the years to come rushing back. I couldn’t wait to try it on.

Continue reading “The perils of the price question” →